New Work Order. Knowledge Workers Of The World, Unite!

The concept of work and how we define it have changed dramatically in the last two decades of the Internet and broadband development. Historically, companies created by the industrial revolution had employees that would commit their whole career and life to one company, yet now Google and Amazon report that the average tenure of an employee is 13 months, not 33 years. Modern knowledge workers are choosing flexibility over security and stability. Technology allows employees to self-educate and build knowledge. Thomas Malone of the MIT Sloan School of Management refers to this as “a new era hyper specialization”, which allows freelancers to build their own “Specialist Brand”.

Sourcing talent globally is common practice. To handle the on-demand work tasks, we seek out tools and smart technologies that effortlessly create ambient knowledge exchange between people and across teams. Thus allowing to work more effectively and efficiently. But how do companies maintain culture and foster effective collaboration when the designer is in Zurich, the engineers are in Austin and the launch is in Beijing? How do we maneuver through the myriad of apps, programs, and digital tools to create the most productive environment, stay connected with peers and manage our knowledge and expertise?

We discussed this and other questions with Cristina Riesen (General Manager Europe Evernote) and Monika Frech (One of 30 Co-Founder of Dark Horse Innovation).